Patricia Highsmith
Born Mary Patricia Plangman on January 19, 1921, in Fort Worth, Texas, the only child of artist Jay Plangman and the former Mary Coates; parents divorced shortly after her birth, and she moved to New York City with mother and stepfather Stanley Highsmith; grew up mostly under care of maternal grandmother. Graduated from Barnard College in 1942.
Published short story “The Heroine” in Harper’s Bazaar in 1945. Worked as a freelance comic book script writer, 1942–48, including romance comics for Marvel precursors Timely Comics and Atlas Comics. In 1948 stayed at Yaddo, artists’ colony in Saratoga, New York, along with Chester Himes, Truman Capote, and Katherine Anne Porter. Published first novel Strangers on a Train in 1950; rights purchased for small amount by Alfred Hitchcock, whose film version starring Farley Granger and Robert Walker was released the following year.
Published The Price of Salt, a novel with a lesbian theme, as Claire Morgan in 1952; did not publicly acknowledge pseudonym until shortly before her death. Published The Blunderer (1954), followed by The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955), in which she introduced the continuing character Tom Ripley. Published Deep Water (1957), A Game for the Living (1958), and, with Doris Sanders, the children’s picture book Miranda the Panda is On the Veranda (1958).
Moved to Sneden’s Landing, New York, where she lived briefly with the novelist Marijane Meaker. Published This Sweet Sickness (1960). Moved to Europe, living in Italy, England, and France. Published novels The Cry of the Owl (1962), The Two Faces of January (1964), The Glass Cell (1964), The Story-teller (1965), Those Who Walk Away (1967), and The Tremor of Forgery (1969), as well as a guide for writers, Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction (1966). Returned to Tom Ripley with Ripley Under Ground (1970), Ripley’s Game (1974), The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980), and Ripley Under Water (1991). Published short story collections Eleven (1970), Little Tales of Misogyny (1974), The Animal Lover’s Book of Beastly Murder (1975), Slowly, Slowly, in the Wind (1979), and The Black House (1981), as well as novels A Dog’s Ransom (1972), Edith’s Diary (1977), and People Who Knock on the Door (1983).
Moved to a small village near Locarno, Switzerland, in 1981, where she remained for the rest of her life. Published novel Found in the Street (1986) and the short story collections Mermaids on the Golf Course (1985) and Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes (1987). Received Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture in 1990.
In 1991 Highsmith’s mother died at the age of ninety-five. Died February 4, 1995, of aplastic anemia in Locarno, Switzerland, at the age of seventy-four. A final novel, Small g: a Summer Idyll, was published posthumously in 1995, as was the short story collection Nothing That Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories (2002).
Books by Patricia Highsmith
Strangers on a Train (1950)
The Price of Salt (1952)
The Blunderer (1954)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955)
Deep Water (1957)
A Game for the Living (1958)
Miranda the Panda is On the Veranda (1958)
This Sweet Sickness (1960)
The Cry of the Owl (1962)
The Two Faces of January (1964)
The Glass Cell (1964)
The Story-teller (1965)
Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction (1966)
Those Who Walk Away (1967)
The Tremor of Forgery (1969)
Ripley Under Ground (1970)
Eleven (1970)
A Dog’s Ransom (1972)
Ripley’s Game (1974)
Little Tales of Misogyny (1974)
The Animal Lover’s Book of Beastly Murder (1975)
Edith’s Diary (1977)
Slowly, Slowly, in the Wind (1979)
The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980)
The Black House (1981)
People Who Knock on the Door (1983)
Found in the Street (1986)
Mermaids on the Golf Course (1985)
Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes (1987)
Ripley Under Water (1991)
Small g: a Summer Idyll (1995)
Nothing That Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories (2002)
Sarah Weinman is widely recognized as a leading authority on crime fiction. She is the editor of Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives: Stories from the Trailblazers of Domestic Suspense, which the Los Angeles Review of Books called “simply one of the most significant anthologies of crime fiction, ever.” She is the news editor for Publishers Marketplace, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the National Post, and The Washington Post, among other publications.